Liberation From Back Pain

Will My Knee Cartilage Grow Back?

After 20 years of practicing this particular brand of preventative self-care I’ve seen not only the logic proven over and over, but the personal experience of my own body bouncing back from injuries, accidents and stupid choices from time to time. So, OK Alexander Technique doesn’t stop you from making mistakes, but it sure helps you recover from the aftermath without a life-long “story” of how you’ve never been the same since…

Just because there’s no pain,

doesn’t mean you’re not doing damage.

Yesterday I was asked to show proof of my assertion that the body can heal itself. Well, more specifically that knee cartilage can rebuild itself. So before I throw around some of the evidence, let’s look at the actual question being asked here.

What is the body built from? Cells. Well done, you pass.

Does each cell have a program to heal? Yes, well done… that was a tricky one.

Is my knee cartilage built from cells?You get the picture…

If your orthopaedic surgeon says that your only option moving forward is an operation…and he’s only educated to that degree of knowledge…i.e., worn cartilage = replacement/operation, then asking him if it will repair is like asking a builder what kind of face cream works best under your foundation.

In short, you’re asking the wrong person.

I specialize in showing people how they are destroying the natural balance and function of their body with physical habits of movement. For example, when a person presents me with the problem of “dodgy knees…destined for replacement” I observe very closely how they use those knees every time they bend, take a step or stand still. Simple as that. If you are doing something with excessive force, thousands of times a day…it will be creating damage that needs repair.

Why would my knees suddenly start to be a problem in my 40’s

when it “wasn’t there” before?

Logic, if adhered to, will allow one to assume that the healing processes of the body are slowing down as we age. Like the way eating anything in our twenties seems to stop being a good idea in our 40’s as the weight strangely seems to collect around our middle.

So if nothing changes in the way we use our body… and yet we expect it to continue repairing itself at the same rate as our hormonally charged teens, twenties and to a much lesser degree our 30’s(ahhh our 30’s, all that energy and naivety) we are just the perfect fodder for professionals who paint the picture of “your only option is an operation”.

The truth is just because there’s no pain, doesn’t mean you’re not doing damage.

Sure, humans only take notice once there’s pain, however once those achy symptoms present, it’s not because it’s “just happened.” You’ve just reached a tipping point.

For a much more eloquent story of how to overcome the “impossible” see Richard Bedard’s Saving My Knees, his personal story of triumph over the mainstream assessment “your knees will never get better”.

Over the years, the medical profession has been trusted without question, bloodletting killed George Washington, not washing hands before surgery and lobotomy until the 1950’s!…until they are dragged kicking and screaming to consider a change to their custom. They only know what they’ve studied and if new “discoveries” weren’t(and aren’t) in the curriculum then it doesn’t exist.

The best most recent example of this ignorance(moreover the habit of ruling out anything that isn’t fully understood) is that once your brain is damaged… you’re toast. A read of Norman Doidge’s books adds much to the topic of neuroplasticity.

This general statement from the Journal of Rheumatology(2006) may lend the most support for what we do with the Alexander Technique…across the board. It’s up to you and your intuition as to what makes the most sense in the field of “prevention”:

“These data suggest that interventions aimed at preventing or treating cartilage defects may have an important role in the prevention of knee OA”.

Alkalize your blood, reduce force/friction in your body in general and start thinking differently… it will allow small miracles to happen.